Embracing True Spirituality
It is natural that we get excited by the prospect of living a spiritual life, a divine life. This generally happens when some guru influences us with an uplifting discourse or even her magnetic presence. It may take place sometimes after a certain long association with a master. Some powerful books too are behind many of us turning to spirituality in a big way. Many ideas or concepts of what it is to live the ‘higher life’ arise in our mind. We plan to exercise a great amount of our will power to live rightly from the next morning itself – doing things like prayers, yoga, meditation, study of scriptures etc. And of course, our grand plan includes giving up many bad things – bad habits, bad company etc. The very thought, “I am going to be a good man from tomorrow,” generates a great feeling. Typically we begin earnestly with implementing a few of our points and it does give to us some satisfaction.
Life however is vast and complex. Everything tends to become mechanical pretty soon. What is worse, our own mind changes. We change our practices for something new begins to appeal to us. Sometimes even a new guru! Obstacles come our way. Distractions happen very often. Sometimes we go off track so much that it is years before we get back on it. It is like taking a wrong exit and losing a lot of time before being on the freeway again. Our own mental impurities are such that, rather than minding our own spiritual practice, we get busy judging other seekers and evaluating them. Countless are the perils and traps on this so-called spiritual path.
What is true spirituality? Which is the right path? How do we know we are on the right track? While a hundred traditions have all packed spirituality in their own ways, with their symbols and concepts, the essence certainly has not much to do with the packaging. Many practices surely help seekers to gain inner development but spiritual maturity has the fragrance of letting go of rigid and idealistic ways of being. Jack Kornfield, a well-known author, touches on this and gives an interesting instance of a young woman who had struggled greatly in the early years of her (Buddhist) practice in the face of family difficulties and the fundamentalist church to which her parents had belonged. She wrote, “My parents hate me when I am a Buddhist, but they love me when I am a Buddha.”1
The strength and the gentleness that arise with spiritual maturity touch the hearts of others whereas a mere belief system divides people. The flexibility that we discover within us as we grow in maturity is not the result of lack of will power or self-discipline but a higher understanding where we are able to keep issues in perspective, think about them in a reasonable way without exaggerating their importance. “Everything in its right place” takes precedence over “a place for everything” in this broadminded way of seeing things. A rigid mind is unable to appreciate another song while the flexible mind, enjoying a silence within it, is open to new rhythms.
Lacking in ripeness, we turn spirituality and religion into what Alan Watts2 called “a grim duty”. Our sense of commitment to our chosen path may make us lose the natural inner kindness of our heart. Compassion takes a back seat and preconceived ideas of right and wrong dominate our thoughts and feelings. We need to introspect and detect these aberrations, and get back to our original, loving kindness. This requires great courage and honesty. Otherwise the fear of all our long practice going a waste would overcome us. The return to simplicity requires getting rid of any such fear.
It all boils down to giving up pride, hurt, likes and dislikes. We must dare to be ordinary. Life’s situations may demand that we play certain roles, to which the society attaches some authority and power. However, we had better know that we are just one of the billions of waves upon this sea of humanity. It is just not possible to make a judgment about our worth and then sit upon it. We never know where we are. The moment we think we have evolved, that very thought causes a stain on whatever spiritual luster there was within us a split second before.
Let us just be – doing things as they come, with all our heart. Let our flame of awareness not get dim by the smoke of thoughts that describe our path as right and that of others as faulty.
Swami Chidananda
Monday, September 25, 2006
End Notes:
1 Jack Kornfield: A Path with Heart, published by Bantam New Age 1993, page 309
2 Alan Watts: The Essential Alan Watts, published by Celestial Arts, 1977